After winning the blockbuster opener against Simona Halep, wildcard Sharapova’s position shifted from “no pressure” to “all pressure”, as her victory over the world No.2 raised the expectations of the tennis community, proving that her fighting spirit paired up with her experience and even average form can do wonders. This shift resulted in Sharapova’s nervous start to her second-round encounter with the world No.59 Babos.

Displaying spectacular defense to Sharapova’s courageous attacks, Babos persistently dictated the scoreline in the first set, three times leading by a break. However, the 2006 champion Sharapova always caught up, including twice when Babos served for the set, and forced a tiebreak, in which Babos finally managed to seal the deal.

After a slow start to the second set, Babos recovered from 0-2 to 3-2 and held multiple break points for 4-2, which could’ve easily been the end of Sharapova, but the battling Russian prevented the catastrophe, leveled to 3-3 and continued to march through the set, winning it 6-4.

Sharapova’s comeback killed Babos’ self-esteem and the Russian stormed through the third set, victoriously ending the thrilling encounter which could’ve easily been won by the 24-year-old Hungarian, had it not been for Sharapova’s vast experience and out-of-this-world mental power.

Jim, this is what Sharapova said about the dress for Vogue: “That’s what I felt with the 2006 dress, and what I really wanted to relive in this dress is the moment of elegance and thinking of Audrey Hepburn and her classic Givenchy dress.” 🙂

Jean, it wasn’t really good for Lotto that she was seen cutting out portions of her dress during a match. A ruffle was bugging her for some reason.